Köçek

The köçek phenomenon (plural köçekler in Turkish) is one of the significant features of Ottoman Empire culture[citation needed]. The köçek was typically a very handsome young male rakkas, “dancer,” usually cross-dressed in feminine attire, employed as an entertainer and sex worker[citation needed].

The köçeks were usually children of non-Muslim dhimmi peoples living under Ottoman rule. Their ranks were filled from the ethnic groups - mostly Christians - subdued by the Turkish empire (such as the Circassians, Albanians, Balkan Slavs, Armenians, Jews, Roma-Gypsies, Moldavians and Greeks) since the profession was held to be below the dignity of a Muslim and thus forbidden to Muslim boys…............

The köçek phenomenon (plural köçekler in Turkish) is one of the significant features of Ottoman Empire culture[citation needed]. The köçek was typically a very handsome young male rakkas, “dancer,” usually cross-dressed in feminine attire, employed as an entertainer and sex worker[citation needed].

The köçeks were usually children of non-Muslim dhimmi peoples living under Ottoman rule. Their ranks were filled from the ethnic groups - mostly Christians - subdued by the Turkish empire (such as the Circassians, Albanians, Balkan Slavs, Armenians, Jews, Roma-Gypsies, Moldavians and Greeks) since the profession was held to be below the dignity of a Muslim and thus forbidden to Muslim boys…............

I’d like to know how they justified all this in the face of Islamic teachings against homosexuality and all that.

The Ottomans did all sorts of things that modern Islamic fundamentalists would be appalled by.

In Bosnia, the Saudi-financed “rebuilding” of Ottoman-era mosques damaged during the war all too often amounts to cultural destruction, as medieval cemetaries are plowed up and paved over, and gorgeous wall paintings and mosaics are scrubbed off and/or plastered over; all to achieve that sterile, bland—but religiously correct—Saudi style.

So, ironically, the Islamic charities are furthering the work of the Serb fascists—erasing Bosnia’s cultural past.

The Islamists’ interest in boys as sex objects is generally owed to their beliefs and social milieu. Their strict religious convictions do not allow them to be with a woman outside their own families, let alone touch one, before marriage. Moreover, in some Muslim countries, males can’t even catch a glimpse of the demonized female form because of the body-encompassing clothing she is forced to wear. In such a gender segregated environment, homosexual behavior develops, especially towards boys.

Even the Taliban, which executed homosexuals when it ruled Afghanistan, could not eradicate the sexploitation of boys, even in its own ranks. Among the 30 commands it issued to its fighters, Rule No. 19 forbid them from taking young boys without facial hair into their barracks. After the Taliban regime fell, a Fox news report indicated pederasty in Afghanistan returned to its previous place as an accepted social norm.

Sexual exploitation of boys in Muslim countries also has a long history. The Asia Times columnist, Spengler (an anonymous pseudonym), wrote in his column, Sufism, Sodomy and Satan, that, in the High Middle Ages, Sufism, Islam’s mystic branch, “is the only case in which a mainstream current of a major world religion preached pederasty as a path to spiritual enlightenment.” He then cites a German historian who claims this Sufi practice “persisted in many Islamic countries until very recent times.” The 2007 movie, The Kite Runner, located in Afghanistan, showed a “last vestige” of Sufism’s pederast side when dancing boys appeared in female dress.

Perhpas not altogether insignificant in this grotesque phenomenon is that the Koran itself promises to put pre-pubescent boys at the service of jihadi martyrs not interested in the female virgins awaiting them in paradise. The boys will be like “scattered pearls” of “perpetual freshness” (Suras 52:24, 56:17, 76:19).

[quote author=“bigredfutbol”]
In Bosnia, the Saudi-financed “rebuilding” of Ottoman-era mosques damaged during the war all too often amounts to cultural destruction, as medieval cemetaries are plowed up and paved over, and gorgeous wall paintings and mosaics are scrubbed off and/or plastered over; all to achieve that sterile, bland—but religiously correct—Saudi style.

So, ironically, the Islamic charities are furthering the work of the Serb fascists—erasing Bosnia’s cultural past.

Supposedly the same thing is happening in Saudi Arabia itself with certain archaeological sites being damaged or destroyed although I’m not certain what their argument is. It seems hypocritical because in Saudi Arabia other Islamic teachings are being violated such as showing images of living things, including photographs, drawings and television broadcasts. I’m not sure how strongly those were ever enforced in the first place. It seems to be a feature of religious faith that it can tolerate a lot of internal contradictions.